You have not heard from me in 3 weeks, and you certainly
deserve to hear from me. Well, I am currently in a very small Nepali village
called Haripur just north of the Indian border. My team (and team Radiance) is
being hosted by a wonderful Nepali family with an amazing testimony and legacy.
16(?) years ago, there were no believers in the area until Uncle Achuyt, the
patriarch of this family, accepted Christ through the witness of his sister.
Achuyt’s wife and three children followed him in faith, and also in the
decisions he consequently made. At the time of his conversion, Achuyt was a
Hindu priest and member of the highest caste, but he left those positions of
privilege to plant a church and enter full time ministry. Achuyt’s conversion
also made a radical difference in his personal life. He began to go against the
societal standards which say that women have no value except to serve their
husbands and bear children, and the mutual love and honor they show each other
today is truly beautiful.
This Christ-inspired commitment to loving and cherishing
women has flowed over into one of the ministries this family founded and lead—New
Light Nepal, an anti-trafficking ministry. This ministry seeks to stop human
trafficking through education and church planting—education to open up job
opportunities to vulnerable people, education about the risks and realities of
trafficking, and church planting to turn the hearts of the people from
wickedness to justice.
Here in Haripur, the family runs a school, pastors multiple
churches, and engages in daily outreaches, and these are the ministries we are
partnering with. I’m sure their schedule looks a little different when they are
not hosting teams, but while we have been here, we have engaged in a wide range
of ministries. We frequently walk to neighboring villages to try to build
relationships with those communities. It was initially challenging because of
the language barrier, and the children were afraid of the “white faces,” but we
eventually figured out just the right sequence of songs, games, and dances to
win them over. We teach them the motions to Christian worship songs, play
London Bridge, and tell them the story of Noah’s ark. We pray over them if
permitted and distribute tracts when appropriate. Unfortunately, the spiritual
darkness is very thick in this district, and the people are overall very
resistant to the Gospel. If you’d like, I invite you to cover Nepal, and this
district specifically, with prayer and worship, so that the darkness will
vanish, and the hearts of the people will be receptive.
There’s so much more to share, but I don’t want this blog to
get too long, so I’ll pause here, but I hope I get to spend time with all of
you after the Race is over and share with you all the things that don’t make
their way up on my blog.
Thanks, as always, for your amazing love and support!
Love always,
Katie
P.S. I got peed on by a Nepali baby. Photo coming, internet
permitting 😀
